ONE PIECE: NEN MASTER - CHAPTER 13 (Patreon)

[Valor POV]

As I got ready to start my training with Inuarashi, which would start in a few minutes. I felt something approaching my room fast, making my tail move ever so slightly as my whiskers tensed. “I don’t have time for this, Sakura.” 

At my comment, a shadow appeared at the door of my room. And as I had expected, it was no other than Sakura, my otter mink friend, who at being caught pouted, crossing her arms, as I turned around only to see her long brown hair tied into a high ponytail leave my room.

“You are mean!” Sakura shouted from the hall, the sound of her steps telling me she was leaving the house.

“I’m a busy man,” I replied, going back to my thing. Getting ready for today’s training. Today was the day I would spar with Inuarashi sensei, going all out.

Long story short, a few days ago I had made a monumental breakthrough in my previously precarious Hatsu situation, and Inuarashi would be the first one to test it in combat. 

Of course, my Hatsu was far from complete; it was at its earliest stage, but, nonetheless, the only way to improve upon something was trial and error.

I had taken inspiration from the realms of reincarnation in Buddhism. Basing my Hatsu on that but changing the realms of reincarnation to the Nen types. 

Six Heavenly Realms: Nen.

Though right now was more like a single realm, to be honest. While I wanted my ability to lean that way, I hadn’t had the time to create abilities for each realm, but one, and even those were rather incomplete.

“Time for a fight,” I smiled, grabbing my stuff before darting out of the house through my window to avoid Sakura’s ambush. I really had no time for her weekly shenanigans. Maybe tomorrow, but not today.

—-------------------

I rushed through the forest, skipping from branch to branch, letting my senses guide me, as I scanned the dense forest. 

The scent of Inuarashi drawing me onward, deeper into the forest. 

I chuckled, remembering a time my senses weren’t this strong, before shaking my head at the thought; opening my jaws slightly to let the warm smells of the forest reach the scent glands on the roof of my mouth, confirming Inuarashi’s location.

Meaning it was time.

Calming my senses, I stopped in a branch, a mile or two from Inuarashi, my body lowering into position, crouching for the attack. Based on my location and how the wind was blowing, I was almost certain my teacher was not aware of me, after all, I was downwind from him.

Ready to start my training, I activated my Ren, coating my body in a thick layer of aura, before pushing back hard on my legs, blurring out of sight, as I zoomed towards the unexpecting Inuarashi with a surprise attack.

However, before I could reach him, at the very last moment, when I was mere inches away, Inurashi turned around, rapier in hand, as his mouth stretched into a broad smile, blocking my attack with a swing of his Haki coated weapon. 

“Let’s begin, Valor!” he muttered, our attacks clashing in an electric show, as the ground crumbled beneath his foot, destroying his stance. 

I smiled, jumping back, getting into position. “I was sure I had you there.”

“Hm, my nose it’s better, kid,” Inuarashi smiled, as I made a mental note of using Zetsu next time, to surprise him.

“Dog nose wins, I suppose,” I chuckled, taking a step forward without making a sound, baring my Haki and Nen at full power as I approached him. My will echoing across the forest.

“That will never cease to surprise me,” Inuarashi smiled fondly, grabbing his rapier tight. “Show me the result of your training, don’t dare to hold back!” he barked, his Haki flaring as the real battle was about to begin.

Without another word, I darted towards him, closing the distance between us in the blink of an eye, engaging Inuarashi in close combat to test my new ability, Chain. Throwing a jab, that Inu blocked, countering with a swing of his rapier, that I avoided by ducking under the attack, throwing a kick to his leg, scoring an early hit that swept him off the ground.

Inuarashi at first looked shocked, dumbfounded my kick had swept him so easily, but then after half of a second, he simply smiled, throwing his body around, swinging his rapier at me once again at full force, as I retreated back to avoid his attack that created a gust of wind with enough power to cut three trees in its way.

“That kick hurt. More than it should’ve,” Inuarashi complimented, his leg bleeding ever so slightly, which in turn made me frown. Perhaps it was best to avoid using Chain.

Chain, the first of my abilities within my Heavenly Realms. In the realm of enhancement. 

Chain like most enhancers was a straightforward ability, one that worked by empowering my attacks with raw Nen, doubling the strength of each consecutive attack as long as the chain of attacks remained uninterrupted.

The kick I had thrown to his leg was, based on Chain, on combo point hit two. 

Meaning, that the kick had been at least twice as powerful as my normal attacks. I wasn’t entirely sure, yet, as the ability was in essence still incomplete, mostly because I had yet to familiarize myself with it.

“Don’t hold back, Valor, don’t you dare to insult me like that,” Inuarashi said, his eyes trained on me. “I aim to win this spar kid, once again for that matter, and I aim to do so by taking you on at your best. As I expect you to defeat me one of these days, at my own best.”

It wasn’t like I didn’t want to fight him, it was more like I was afraid of one of my empowered attacks blowing a part of him up. 

Then again, I could always avoid reaching more than three or four combo points. 

If I did that, I was sure to keep things out of the lethal department.

“Very well,” I nodded, getting back into position. I would perfect Chain during this fight, victory was not my goal, only improvement.